CERT meeting to address earthquake response

A Los Angeles County Fire Department battalion chief with search and rescue experience will talk about implications for Southern California when an earthquake strikes at a Los Angeles City Fire Department’s Westside Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) meeting in Westchester Tuesday, March 23rd.

The free meeting is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. at Fire Station 5, 8900 S. Emerson Ave., Westchester.

The discussion “Haiti Earthquake: Lessons Learned During Search and Rescue of Deeply Entombed Survivors,” will be presented by Battalion Chief Larry Collins, a search team manager of the county Fire Department’s Urban Search and Rescue Task Force.

Collins will also discuss the lessons learned in the recent statewide Shakeout Earthquake Exercises.

The 72-member USA-2 Urban Search and Rescue Task Force (including rescue firefighters, six canine search teams, two structure engineers, and two emergency room physicians) was deployed to Haiti immediately after the January 12th earthquake by the U.S. Agency for International Development and participated in the rescue of nine victims trapped in rubble in Port au Prince, Haiti’s capital.

Collins is a 30-year member of the fire department and has been a search team manager since 1992.